Multicultural spectres in the crisis of European citizenship

The debate on multiculturalism in Europe is gathering new momentum. It has done so" and I shall limit myself to a couple of examples" following Theo van Gogh's murder in Holland in November 2004 and after the riots of the French banlieues in the autumn of the following year. In the former case, the murder of the director of Submission fostered a movement of xenophobic rejection of multiculturalism in one of the European countries that is historically most 'tolerant' and open to cultural diversity. This movement, which was noticeable in the 2002 electoral results of the Pim Fortuyn List (after the assassination of its promoter by an animal rights activist), achieved full success in the 2010 elections with Geert Wilders' PVV. In the latter case, the French republican model" rather different from the Dutch one" was strikingly confronted by the 'integration deficit' of young second- and third-generation immigrants, who were born in France and were mostly French citizens (so that President Sarkozy put forward the surreal proposal to deprive of citizenship those 'offenders' who are the children of immigrants). A few French intellectuals timidly tried to evoke the virtues of British-style multiculturalism, to be instantly overwhelmed by the intrepid unanimity with which the image of the Republique" a real totem in the otherwise lively public debate" is revered in France.